28 Levels of Language Use

Using Language at Work is a Public Matter

As explained, work involves making sense of reality in a consistent way so as to have confidence about being responsible for altering it. This «making sense» is about interacting effectively, not simply holding a private belief.

You have to be able to persuade yourself and others to act on what you see. This is especially evident in organizations where people work in teams within and across levels.
ClosedMore

Your accounts of a situation must persuade:

  • upwards in the hierarchy e.g. in requests for resources, or for more time, or to pursue new ideas; and
  • downwards in the hierarchy where the work of inferiors or subordinates must be defined, assigned and appraised in an acceptable and objective fashion; and also
  • sideways to enable and ensure effective cooperation with team-members and others more distantly related but working at the same level.

Remember: Hierarchies for organizing work show an internal duality in which work at the lower 4 Levels requires using language in one approach, and work at the upper 3 Levels requires using language in the next higher approach. This 7-Level system in THEE is labeled a Q-hierarchy: and the earliest inquiries focused (unknowingly) on the second in the series: QH2.

These Q-hierarchies identify distinct domains of work-responsibility in society: as explained here.

Formulating Work Responsibility

Work responsibility has been located in the Q-expansion of the Approaches to Using Language-PH'5 within the Framework of Communication-PH5.

So some familiarity with the use of language framework (currently in the TOP Studio) is beneficial in appreciating the analyses here and in future sections.

Development of this part of the taxonomy requires:

  • determination of the Levels in the Style Hierarchy (formerly called a Modal Hierarchy).
  • application of these modal Levels (Styles) to the Principal Typology by determining the aspect of language that comes to the fore in each Approach.
  • determining 7-Level Q-hierarchies by combining a complete 4-Level Approach with the lower 3 Levels of the next higher Approach. (This taxonomic system is cyclic with L'1 being regarded as higher than L'7.)
  • naming the 7 Q-hierarchies and developing Frameworks derived from them like Trees and Structural Hierarchies.
  • appreciating interactions between Q-hierarchies.

Originally posted: 25-Oct-2013